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1 Kings Chapter 11

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1 Kings Chapter 11 1 Kings Chapter 11 Verses 1-8: “Solomon’s power, prestige and wealth became his undoing. The taking of foreign “wives,” whether in the making of alliances or in order to increase his harem, was not only a violation of the law of Moses (Exodus 34:12-17), but extremely dangerous spiritually (see note on Judges 3:6-7). Solomon was about 60 years old by this time. Among kings in the ancient Near East, taking “foreign” wives often produced political alliances; for Israel, it led to the worship of other gods (Exodus 34:12-17), a double disobedience. “Loved many strange women”: Many of Solomon’s marriages were for the purpose of ratifying treaties with other nations, a common practice in the ancient Near East. The practice of multiplying royal wives (prohibited in Deut. 17:17), because the practice would turn the king’s heart away from the Lord, proved to be accurate in the experience of Solomon. His love for his wives (verses 1-2), led him to abandon his loyalty to the Lord and worship other gods (verse 3- 6). No sadder picture can be imagined than the ugly apostasy of his later years (overs 50), which can be traced back to his sins with foreign wives. Polygamy was tolerated among the ancient Hebrews, though most in the east had only one wife. A number of wives were seen as a sign of wealth and importance. The king desired to have a larger harem that any of his subjects, and Solomon resorted to this form of state magnificence. But it was a sin directly violating God’s law, and the very result which that law was designed to prevent happened. 1 Kings 11:1 "But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, [and] Hittites;" “Moabites” Descendants of Lot (Gen. 19:37), who lived in the land east of the Dead Sea between the Arnon River to the north and the Zered Brook to the south. “Ammonites”: Descendants of Lot (Gen. 19:38), who were located in the area of the Transjordan beginning about 25 miles east of the Jordan River. “Edomites”: Descendants of Esau (Gen. 36:1), who located in the area south of Moab, to the southeast of the Dead Sea. “Zidonians” (see note on 5:6). “Hittites” (see note on 10:29). The word "strange" indicates they were forbidden to the Hebrews. One of the dangers of great wealth and power is that we have a tendency to think too highly of ourselves. Solomon was no exception. He felt he could do no wrong. He obviously had forgotten the warnings of God about not keeping His commandments. Wealth, such as Solomon had accumulated, was associated with worldliness. God had never wanted Israel depending on horses and chariots to win their battles either. God was their strength. Perhaps many of these marriages were marriages of state 1 to avoid war with the girl's family. That still is no excuse for these many marriages. Marrying women who worshipped false gods, would be Solomon's downfall. 1 Kings 11:2 "Of the nations [concerning] which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: [for] surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love." That is, they should not intermarry with one another. This is to be understood of the last mentioned, the Hittites, who were one of the seven nations this law respected (Deut. 7:1). "For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods": Which is the reason given for the making the above law, and was sadly verified in Solomon. "Solomon clave unto these in love": He not only took them, but kept them, and expressed a strong affection for them. Solomon had done exactly what God told him not to do. He had married women who would turn his head away from the One True God to false gods. 1 Kings 11:3 "And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart." In all 1000, a prodigious number; though these might not be all for use, but for state after the manner of the eastern monarchs. These were a far greater number than are alluded to (in SOS 6:8), unless the virgins without number there, were such of these as were not defiled by him. But the number here seems plainly referred to (in Ecclesiastes 7:28). "And his wives turned away his heart": Both from his duty to his God, and from attendance to his business as a king, especially the former, as follows. Lust of the flesh causes Solomon to fall into deep sin. It really does not matter whether the number of wives and concubines is an accurate number or not. He did have numerous wives and concubines. Solomon, like most men, should have been more selective in his wives. He should have chosen women who worshipped the One True God. 1 Kings 11:4 "For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, [that] his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as [was] the heart of David his father." “Of David” (verse 6). David is consistently presented in Kings as the standard by which other kings were to act and be judged (3:14; 9:4; 14:8; 15:3; 2 Kings 8:19; 22:2). This was not because David had not sinned (2 Sam. 11-12), but rather because he repented appropriately from his sin (Psalm 32, 51), and because sin did not continue as the pattern of his life. 2 David sinned, but never turned his heart away from God. This is not the same with Solomon. He not only sinned, but his heart was turned away from God. He followed his wives into the worship of false gods. 1 Kings 11:5 "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites." “Ashtoreth,” A deliberate distortion of the Canaanite “ashtart,” re-vocalized based on the Hebrew word for “shame”. She was the goddess of love and fertility, especially worshiped at Tyre and Sidon. “Milcom”: Another name for Molech (verse 7), the national god of the Ammonites. His name seems to mean “the one who rules”. The worship of Molech was associated with the sacrifice of children in the fire (Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; Jer. 32:35). (See the note on Judges 2:11-15). This is idolatry. Solomon has broken relationship with his God. When he built altars to these false gods for his wives to worship, he was agreeing that this was alright to do. Solomon did not stop worshipping the LORD. He just allowed his wives to worship their false gods with his approval. Ashteroth had to do with sensuous worship. Milcom included human sacrifice in its worship. 1 Kings 11:6 "And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as [did] David his father." “Evil in the sight of the Lord”: The evil of Solomon was his tolerance of and personal practice of idolatry. These same words were used throughout (the book of Kings), to describe the rulers who promoted and practiced idolatry (15:26, 34; 16:19, 25, 30; 22:52; 2 Kings 3:2; 8:18, 27; 13:2, 11; 14:24; 15:9, 18, 24, 28; 17:2; 21;2, 20; 23:32, 37; 24:9, 19). Solomon became an open idolater, worshiping images of wood and stone in the sight of the temple which, in his early years, he had erected to the one true God. The word "fully", in the verse above, lets us know that Solomon never stopped worshipping the LORD. His tolerance of the worship of false gods by his wives was not right however, and his associations made him guilty of idolatry. 1 Kings 11:7 "Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that [is] before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon." “Chemosh”: The god of the Moabites, to whom the sacrifice of children as a burnt offering was customary (2 Kings. 3:27). “The hill … before Jerusalem”: Probably the Mount of Olives. This is the area called Tophet (in Jer. 7:30-34), and the mount of corruption (in 2 Kings 23:13). 3 For “Molech” (see the note on 2 Kings 23:10). Solomon was being tolerant of the worship of his wives of false gods. He was the leader of the country and should not have permitted it. His success had come from the One True God. 1 Kings 11:8 "And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods." That is, built high places for their idols, or suffered them to be built. For when he had done it for one, he could not refuse it to another, without greatly disobliging them; even for many of them. "Which burnt incense, and sacrificed unto their gods": The gods of the countries from where they came, and in the worship of which they had been brought up. This shows that the best and wisest of men, when left to themselves, may do the worst and most foolish of all things; as nothing can be more so than the worship of such wretched deities.
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